Why Outsource It
Culling Is the Job Nobody Books You For
A wedding produces three to five thousand frames. Nobody is paying you for the four hours it takes to decide which eight hundred of them the couple should see — and yet that decision has to happen before a single edit can start. It is the bottleneck sitting in front of every other part of your post-production.
It is also the part that degrades fastest. Culling is a judgement made several thousand times in a row, and by frame two thousand the standard has drifted — usually toward keeping too much, because rejecting takes more energy than accepting. Galleries get bloated at exactly the point the photographer is most tired.
We cull to a written brief, at a consistent standard, with fresh eyes on every batch. Nothing is deleted — rejects are flagged, not removed, so the call is always reversible. And because the same team stays on your account, your third gallery is culled the way you liked the first.
The Method
How We Decide What Stays
Five criteria, applied in Lightroom, in this order. Override any of them in your brief and we cull to yours instead.
Percentage
You set the keep rate. Tell us to bring 3,000 frames down to 800, or to a fixed percentage, and that is the target we cull to.
Expression
Closed eyes, half-blinks, mid-sentence mouths and flat expressions go. Where a moment repeats, the frame with the best faces survives.
Variety
Near-identical frames are collapsed to the strongest one, so the gallery moves through the day instead of repeating it.
Importance of the moment
First look, vows, rings, the toast — key moments are kept generously even when the technical execution is imperfect.
Composition & artistic value
Framing, focus, timing and light. A technically clean but lifeless frame loses to a slightly soft one that actually says something.
Delivery
What Comes Back
- A Lightroom catalog with your selects flagged and star-rated
- Rejects marked rather than deleted — nothing is thrown away
- RAW and JPEG both supported, in your existing folder structure
- Colour labels for anything that needs your eye before it ships
- Straight into editing if you want the same batch colour corrected
Most photographers send the culled set straight into colour correction on the same order, so the gallery comes back culled and graded in one pass.
$0.02
per image, from
24–48h
standard turnaround
10,000+
frames per batch
Free
first gallery
Photo Culling
Culling questions
How much does photo culling cost?
Culling costs $0.02 to $0.03 per image. A 3,000-frame wedding therefore runs about $60 to $90 to cull. Culling is often bundled with colour correction on the same order, which is how most photographers use it.
How do you know which photos to keep?
We cull on five criteria: your target keep percentage, expression, variety, the importance of the moment, and composition or artistic value. You can override any of them in your brief — for example, keep every frame of the ceremony regardless of the target.
Do you delete the rejected photos?
No. Rejects are flagged and rated in Lightroom, never deleted. Every frame you sent comes back, so you can always overrule a call.
What do I get back?
A Lightroom catalog with selects flagged and star-rated, rejects marked, and colour labels on anything that needs your eye. Your folder structure is preserved and both RAW and JPEG are supported.
How long does culling take?
Most galleries are culled within 24 to 48 hours, including large multi-day events. Rush turnaround is available on request.
Is culling by a person or by AI?
By a person. AI culling tools are good at rejecting the obvious — closed eyes, badly missed focus — but they cannot weigh whether a slightly soft frame carries the moment better than a clean one. Our editors make that call, which is the whole point of culling.
Can you match how I cull?
Yes. Send a previously culled gallery, or the before-and-after counts, and we work to it. The same team stays on your account so consistency builds rather than resets.
Can I try it before committing?
Yes — the first gallery is free. Wedding photographers can claim it on our wedding photographers page, with no card required.
Get Started
Send Us a Gallery
Tell us the frame count and your keep rate, and we'll quote within 24 hours.
Photo Culling
Project Details
Tell us roughly how many frames, the keep rate you want, and how you'd like the selects marked.